How long would you survive financially if you lost your job?

I met up with two of my high school friends last Friday, to catch up, share a meal and reminisce. I had not seen any of them in over two years, so there was a lot to catch up on.

But it was a regular work day for me, so we did not have enough time to really soak into the conversation – we glossed over many things, from relationships to parents and the extended family and everything in between.

This did not, however, stop some topics from lingering, such as the importance of cushioning ourselves against a rainy day. So let’s call it an exciting and rushed meeting – but of course, this didn’t go without us taking photos and videos for keepsake, and of course, for The Gram.

We met at The Collective, tucked somewhere around Goethe Institut and Alliance Françoise, in Nairobi’s central business district. As our conversation moved from how beautiful and artsy the place was, how meaningfully furnished it was to communicate symbols, to how we are faring personally, one of us mentioned that she lost her job at the end of last year.

“I am not going to pretend that I am okay or live large. Who knows, you guys might know of a vacancy that I can apply for. So if I pretend I have a job and everything is okay with me, I might lose an opportunity,” she said.

I don’t know about your clique, but most often, there seems to be an unspoken rule about embellishing truths, any time you meet with old friends.

The silent competition puts pressure on everyone to come across as “living their best life” when the reality is far from that. Her honesty was refreshing, and served as the proper icebreaker, to catch up without trying to keep up appearances.

Also read: Jobless and burned out: Why we gave up looking for jobs

“How have you been surviving without a job?” I asked her, of course, stunned by the fact that nothing in her manner would have hinted that she had been out of work for nearly half a year.

But now that I think about it, these things do not show in the face, or do they? “I survive on my savings. I also do short-term contracts, on and off,” she said.

As she explained how glad she was to have been saving, otherwise she would have nowhere to turn to, I remembered my own struggle before I committed to setting up an emergency fund.

Back then, it felt like an unnecessary bother – I was 23, had just finished my internship, and was not earning that much. Why did I need to put anything away?

Savings

Today, I am overwhelmingly thankful to my colleague, Carol, for asking so many times if I had joined a savings and credit cooperative society (Sacco) yet. I only joined a Sacco to get her off my back, lol!

In my friend’s case, it had taken the insistence and follow-up of a senior colleague for her to set up a savings account. She told us that before her job abruptly ended, nothing could have prepared her for the possibility that she’d one day not have a monthly salary for an indefinite period.

She is a hard worker, was getting good performance reviews and loved her job. So what could possibly go wrong?

If there is something Covid-19 taught many of us, it is that things can change very fast. This means planning for the future is, for the most part, planning for the unforeseen. Consider this article your sign to start saving if you are not already doing so.

Consider this article your sign to live within your means because those people you are trying to impress by living large will not be there when the rubber meets the road and you have to pay back all the loans you can’t account for with a straight face.

But most importantly, consider this article a sign that if you find yourself in the company of friends who give you the vibes to spend what you do not have, to fit in, you are likely hanging out with the wrong crowd.

True independence rides on the back of financial prudence. True independence and a ‘soft life’ is not just something you post about on your socials; it is something you truly live.

The writer is the research editor, NMG ([email protected]).